After filling up on stats and highlights against Bobcats, Blazers turn sights to road challenge

Oregonian | Mar 5

The signature play of the Trail Blazers’ 122-105 win over Charlotte on Monday came late in the first quarter.Blazers point guard Eric Maynor rebounded a Charlotte miss, saw Nicolas Batum racing downcourt and threw a perfect outlet pass to him. Instead of going up for a dunk or layup, Batum tossed the ball off the backboard. Meyers Leonard, trailing the play, but with Charlotte’s Ramon Sessions running near him, caught the ball and dunked it in one motion.

It was a showy play that coach Terry Stotts didn’t care for, but it was one Portland could get away with against the struggling Bobcats.

The Blazers rang up all kinds of offensive numbers, scoring their most points in a regulation game this season, shooting a season-best 59.8 percent from the field and getting seven players scoring in double figures. Although Portland never got the lead high enough to clear its bench until there was 1:05 left, the outcome was never really in doubt.

“I thought we passed the ball well, we had good rhythm shots, and we were active on the offensive glass,” Stotts said. “So I thought it came from a lot of different areas.”

The fun and games, though, are about to give way to a more daunting challenge.

The Blazers (28-31) ended a four-game homestand with three wins, including back-to-back blowouts, against severely short-handed Minnesota and Charlotte (13-47), which has the worst record in the league and lost its seventh game in a row. Portland made some progress in its attempt to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves with a seven-game losing streak before the All-Star break.